Originally settled as a village on the Bronx River, surrounded in the nineteenth-century by cloth factories which used (and polluted) the river water, Bronxdale became residential only after the construction of the subway in 1917. White Plains Road, in the shadow of the elevated tracks, is the neighborhood's main north-south artery. Contrasting Pelham Parkway (officially, "Bronx and Pelham Parkway"), the main east-west thoroughfare, is a broad tree-lined avenue along which cantering horses overtake strollers and bike riders. Joining Bronx and Pelham Bay Parks, it was laid out in 1884, part of an enlightened New York City plan for a greenbelt in the soon-to-be annexed area.